Blue February

There is this theory about Blue Monday: the third one of January, supposedly the worst day of the year. You’re back from your year-end holidays with no break in sight, the weather is bleak (in the Northern hemisphere, that is), your kids have the flu (if you don’t have kids, you do) and you essentially want to kill yourself and/or anyone you cross paths with in the street. Provided your depression allows you to reach the streets.

Well, I contend that’s bollocks (been watching a lot of British TV recently): the real deal is Blue February. You’re now one month in the crap, the weather is still terrible, your kid is even more sick, so are you, and the next holiday is still months away. Unless your kids are in school, in which case they’re having fun in some camp and/or with relatives while you’re stuck going through the twelfth version of a PowerPoint deck you’re convinced will never see the light of day.

Now that’s what I call depressing.

But… there is always a but. And this one is pretty obvious: the bottom of the curve signals the beginning of a new crescendo. I mean, there’s nowhere else to go, is there? The weather can’t get any worse, daylight can’t get any shorter — and your kid can’t get any more sick. Unless it’s their first year at daycare and all bets are off.

And so, here we go along the slow rise to Summer with a spring in our step. See what I did there? You’re welcome. Also, there are a bunch of stand-up specials on Netflix to hold on till you can start wearing shorts again. And they have better jokes than this. Most of them.